Opposition slams Centre for failing to prevent Amarnath attack

New Delhi, July 11 (IANS) The 18 political parties which met on Tuesday to finalise the Opposition’s Vice-Presidential poll nominee, passed a resolution condemning the Amarnath Yatra attack and asked the Centre “to introspect as to why despite advance intelligence inputs, it failed to prevent the attack”.

The resolution also called upon the government “to use all the resources at its command to bring to justice the real masterminds and perpetrators of this inhuman act”.

The meeting of the opposition parties began at the Parliament Library building by observing two-minute silence in respect of seven pilgrims killed in Monday’s terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

Six women and a man were killed while 19 other pilgrims were injured as the terrorists sprayed bullets on an unescorted private bus from Gujarat carrying the pilgrims from the Himalayan cave shrine.

The attack took place in the Khanabal area on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

Reading out the resolution passed by the all-Opposition meeting, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said: “We the leaders of the opposition parties strongly condemn the cowardly and ghastly terrorist attack on the Amarnath Yatris.”

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and stand with them in this hour of grief.”

“This is an attack on humanity. This is an attack on the plurality and diversity of India. This is an attack on the human values and Kashmiriyat,” he added.

“We call upon the government to use all the resources at its command to bring the real masterminds and perpetrators of this inhuman act to justice. The government needs to introspect as to why, despite advance intelligence inputs, was there a failure to prevent this attack?”

Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was named the opposition candidate for the post of Vice President by the conclave of the Opposition parties, that included the Congress and 17 others.